French Healthcare...

Former Member

Having just spent the weekend hearing about the amazing health service in France, I thought that you might like this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1773000/1773203.stm

God, I'm having a day of irony...

Former Member

......and half of east Kent's population is over there having their cataracts removed and hips replaced.......

Former Member

Don't get me started on that..not sure if you are aware of my connection...

Not sure how many hip/knees they plan to send but we have been asked to identify forty-five cataract patients between now and 31/3...

We will have carried out over 3,500 cataract operations this year, and 45 doesn't even reflect a weeks work for us.

This is all political and buggerall to do with waiting lists - currently there are 2,500 people waiting for eye surgery in East Kent. We carry out over 4,500 operations per year - ie average wait six months abd that's coming down - without sending patients abroad.

Did you know that the 4 cataract patients who went to France this week actually spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the hospital. Had we been allowed to spend that money doing them ourselves on Saturday (as an extra list) we would have had them home within five hours AND we could have done six more...

Gotta love politics in the NHS...

Former Member

I knew you worked for the NHS - and we've discussed sending patients to France on here before.

What makes it even worse is the spare capacity in the private sector even in this country. I worked at a BMI hospital over the summer, and there are plenty of beds that could be used were it not for the politics. There are loads of private hospitals in Kent, and all over the home counties: BUPA Alexandra, BUPA Tunbridge Wells, BUPA Hastings, BMI Fawkham Manor, BMI Chelsfield Park, BMI Sloane, Nuffield Tunbridge Wells..........and all the NHS hospitals that accept private patients.

Trouble is, the NHS needs such long term investment that politicians will always try to find quick-fix solutions until we can be proud of the NHS again.

More doctors, a lot more nurses, new buildings and hardware, more beds, efficient management. There's just so much to do, sometimes it does seem easier to send the annoying patients off to France.

The NHS would be great if it wasn't for the patients <IMG alt="image" SRC="biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG alt="image" SRC="wink.gif" border="0">

[Edited: spelling and second thoughts]

[ 21-01-2002: Message edited by: Kentish ]

Former Member

The thing is that we do use the local private hospitals, but only when the consultant wants to. Obviously any NHS patient he does there stops him using his theatre list for his private patients.

Also worth noting is the rumour doing the rounds at the mo, which says that sending them to France is actually cheaper than using local private hospitals!!

The media stories over the weekend about how the Lille hospital is better than the William Harvey in Ashford fail to note that it is a PRIVATE hospital, just like our BMI one, THAT is the comparison to make...

Oh and todays wonderful news from the NHS is the fact that South East Region, which covers every patient send abroad this week has reported that it is likely to be overspent by £60m this year...

Former Member

I think you hit the nail on the head there. The consultants don't have any spare time to do anymore operations (and they'd rather get a decent wage by keeping their private practices). The fact is, operations done in private hospitals do have an indirect impact on waiting lists because the patients have taken themselves off the list to go private.

So really it boils down to capacity. More surgeons, more theatres, more nurses, more beds.

In some ways it makes sense to franchise out to France because they have a lot of spare capacity. It's politically dangerous because it looks like the government has no faith in the NHS.

About the cost: there are already contracts between health authorities and BMI Healthcare to take certain operations into private hospitals so it can work. And the health authority can negotiate good deals: buying in bulk and all that.